Harmony Road sees an uptick in vehicles and more construction as its use grows

Mar. 21, 2013

Cars travel along Harmony Road at Club Drive in Timnath on Mar. 14. / Don Reichert/for the Beacon

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Cars travel along Harmony Road at Club Drive in Timnath on March 14. / Don Reichert/for the Beacon

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Harmony Road — or Weld County Road 74, depending on what side of the county line you stand on — cuts through the land with character as it moves toward the foothills. At times it’s a rural, two-lane road with no shoulder. At other times, it’s an urban-style, six-lane streetscape.

The road extends through Fort Collins, Timnath, Larimer County, Windsor and, finally, Weld County. As growth continues to boom, the traffic on this road — which unites disparate communities with different visions — is going to increase proportionally.

Even now, the rural segments of the road carry as many as 16,000 vehicles each day; the Fort Collins side can see as many as 37,000 cars per day.

According to a North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization document, traffic on rural stretches may be as high as 19,300 cars per day in the year 2035. Users of the road are already seeing the building demand.

“It’s really congested, especially in the 5 o’clock hour,” said Samantha Kovari, a Windsor resident who commutes daily to Fort Collins along the road.

“It just gets busier,” echoed Melody Fred, another commuter who frequents the road.

But as traffic expands, the organizations that oversee the road are not standing idle. The first project, slated to start in May, will expand the road to four lanes from Larimer County Road 5 in Timnath to the Great Western Railway crossing — almost a half-mile of expansion.

Eventually, Timnath plans to expand the road to four lanes all the way to the county line, said Don Taranto, public works director for the town of Timnath.

The town is working on the $2.5 million expansion with a $1 million grant from the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization. The project should be complete by the end of the year.

The improvements will stop about 1.5 miles west of the county line, and they won’t resume until the money is available to do so, Taranto said.

During the expansion, residents can expect more delays. “Both directions of traffic will be kept open, but it will be slower than normal,” Taranto said.

Despite the changes, however, Windsor residents say they still see the road as a helpful alternative when traveling between Windsor and Fort Collins.

“It’s so much better than I-25,” said Mona Hinojosa, who has been commuting from Windsor to Fort Collins along that route for 29 years. “I enjoy going that way. It’s just straight across.”